# Are Wolverines claw anatomically possible? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 7, 2003, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-wolverines-claw-anatomically-possible/186669 "2003-07-07T00:42:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Muad\_Dib](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/35a633/32.png) [@Muad\_Dib](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muad_Dib)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2003, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-wolverines-claw-anatomically-possible/186669/1 "2003-07-07T00:42:16Z")
_Takes award for stupidest GQ this week_ Thank you, I am honored. Oh wait, no I am not… Anyway, I know that we do not inhabit a delightful comic book universe, but are Wolverines claws in anyway anatomically possible? I do not know much human anatomy, so I ask you: Would it be possible to “store” the three blades in the forearm at all? How about with some minor alterations of the muscles? Would it be possible for the claws to somehow travel through the bones of the wrist and hand? Forgetting any Deus ex Machina of Logans healing factor immediately fixing the broken bones, could you see any way for a conduit of some sort to exist without severely impairing wrist and hand movement? ---
**Author:** ![Thaumaturge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/858c86/32.png) [@Thaumaturge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thaumaturge)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2003, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-wolverines-claw-anatomically-possible/186669/2 "2003-07-07T00:55:08Z")
The blades would have to completely cut through the wrist bones. Once past the wrist though, the hand bones wouldn’t get in the way. The hand bones are just like an extension of the fingers that is covered in flesh. IMO though, the wrist bones would make the forearms an impractical storage location for the blades, even taking into account Wolverine’s incredible healing. ---
**Author:** ![raygirvan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ac91a4/32.png) [@raygirvan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raygirvan)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2003, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-wolverines-claw-anatomically-possible/186669/3 "2003-07-07T00:59:13Z")
Reminds me of William Gibson’s **Neuromancer** , where Molly has Wolverine-style blades in her fingertips: “four-centimetre scalpel blades” (i.e. longer than the joint that’s supposed to contain them). ---
**Author:** ![furt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/439d5e/32.png) [@furt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furt)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2003, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-wolverines-claw-anatomically-possible/186669/4 "2003-07-07T01:42:06Z")
I read somewhere (one of the Marvel Encyclopedia things) that he is unable to pop the claws if his wrist is not in the right position; there is some sort of lock on the mechanism that retracts them into his forearm. ---
**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2003, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-wolverines-claw-anatomically-possible/186669/5 "2003-07-07T01:52:13Z")
Bear in mind that Wolverine’s entire skeleton was replaced/supplemented with adamantium, and that the claws were a modification during that process. One supposes that there would be some modification of the wrist bones to permit passage of the claws. ---
**Author:** ![Rabid\_Squirrel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Rabid\_Squirrel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rabid_Squirrel)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2003, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-wolverines-claw-anatomically-possible/186669/6 "2003-07-07T02:10:04Z")
[Kind of a related hijack] Has anyone explained how the claws pop out? I imagine it’s some major surgury to transplant the neccesary muscles and attachment to the claws, but has this every been mentioned in the comic books? [/hijack] ---
**Author:** ![Phage](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a4c791/32.png) [@Phage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phage)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2003, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-wolverines-claw-anatomically-possible/186669/7 "2003-07-07T02:15:32Z")
I think that the newer comics have Wolverine’s original mutation include bone claws of the variety we are familiar with. The adamantine skeleton was just plated over them so they would stop breaking. ---
**Author:** ![Muad\_Dib](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/35a633/32.png) [@Muad\_Dib](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muad_Dib)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2003, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-wolverines-claw-anatomically-possible/186669/8 "2003-07-07T02:16:02Z")
[Here](http://home.comcast.net/~kleebner/wolverines_claws.JPG) is a scan of a 1992 _Marvel Universe Trading Cards Series 2: #138 Wolverines Claws_. It was sent to me by a very nice person [here](http://dacajunland.homestead.com/GambitCards.html). ---
**Author:** ![Muad\_Dib](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/35a633/32.png) [@Muad\_Dib](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muad_Dib)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2003, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-wolverines-claw-anatomically-possible/186669/9 "2003-07-07T02:17:55Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Phage \* > \*\*I think that the newer comics have Wolverine’s original mutation include bone claws of the variety we are familiar with. The adamantine skeleton was just plated over them so they would stop breaking. \*\* One of the stupidest things they ever did to him. For the purposes of the GQ I choose to ignore that recent development. Bone claws… Pffft! ---
**Author:** ![Gorsnak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gorsnak/32/7587_2.png) [@Gorsnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorsnak)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2003, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-wolverines-claw-anatomically-possible/186669/10 "2003-07-07T02:18:07Z")
See, now I opened up this thread thinking that it would be asking if [these](http://www.wolverinefoundation.org/graphics/coxgulo1.gif) claws were anatomically possible, and was going to say, “Duh! Of course they are! There they are, see?” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![mcbiggins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7c8e57/32.png) [@mcbiggins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mcbiggins)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2003, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-wolverines-claw-anatomically-possible/186669/11 "2003-07-07T02:37:58Z")
Alrighty, lets all suspend disbelief for a sec and just try to look at this logically. IF they were housed in his forearm and, when retracted, didn’t reach up the to wrist, and IF there were grooves cut into his wrist bones to allow them to pass, and IF when extended, their interal end didn’t reach down to the wrist from inside his hands, then I don’t see why they wouldn’t allow Wolverine a full range of wrist motion. Now, most comic artists don’t bother with thinking this through, so lots of images have them resting inside his wrists, but of course it makes no sense for them to be there. Is it anatomically plausible that they are organic, like the comic book has made them out for the past decade? No. If he had claws, they’d be more like Deathstrike’s. But I guess if you had access to an impervious metal and a test subject who had magic heal powers, then it’d be no problem to install then into his arms. ---
**Author:** ![mcbiggins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7c8e57/32.png) [@mcbiggins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mcbiggins)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2003, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-wolverines-claw-anatomically-possible/186669/12 "2003-07-07T02:40:40Z")
**Muad’Dib** , if that card is accurate, how would Wolverine use his wrists? ---
**Author:** ![Muad\_Dib](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/35a633/32.png) [@Muad\_Dib](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muad_Dib)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2003, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-wolverines-claw-anatomically-possible/186669/13 "2003-07-07T03:15:06Z")
Good question. It could be that the far right graphic is showing the claws partially extended. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2003, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-wolverines-claw-anatomically-possible/186669/14 "2003-07-07T05:02:08Z")
I don’t see how he can bend his wrists at all. And if the claws retract so far that he can bend his wrists, he probably shouldn’t be able to move his elbows. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Muad\_Dib](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/35a633/32.png) [@Muad\_Dib](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muad_Dib)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2003, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-wolverines-claw-anatomically-possible/186669/15 "2003-07-07T05:11:50Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Marley23 \* > \*\*I don’t see how he can bend his wrists at all. And if the claws retract so far that he can bend his wrists, he probably shouldn’t be able to move his elbows. 😛 \*\* Yes, that is what I want to know. Would it be possible to store those three blades in his forearm without disrupting the muscles? ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2003, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-wolverines-claw-anatomically-possible/186669/16 "2003-07-07T05:23:57Z")
Could they be sorta spring-loaded? I mean, they could be compressed inside his arm so they don’t take up so much space… ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2003, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-wolverines-claw-anatomically-possible/186669/17 "2003-07-07T05:25:09Z")
Perhaps they are hollow telescoping claws? ---
**Author:** ![Maneb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Maneb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maneb)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2003, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-wolverines-claw-anatomically-possible/186669/18 "2003-07-07T05:58:23Z")
I think the main problem with claws like that would be the musculature involved in extending and retracting them. If you look at a cat’s paws, you see that the claws retract by rotating upwards, pulled by a muscle in the lower limb, and extend by rotating down and out, pulled by another opposing muscle. Wolverine’s claws appear to push straight out along the line of his forearms, so the muscles pulling on them would have to be in his wrists or hands and would have to be able to contract enough to pull at least 15 inches of blade in a straight line. Possible? Maybe, with some very creative surgery, but it seems pretty unlikely. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2003, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-wolverines-claw-anatomically-possible/186669/19 "2003-07-07T06:00:03Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Gorsnak \* > \*\*See, now I opened up this thread thinking that it would be asking if [these](http://www.wolverinefoundation.org/graphics/coxgulo1.gif) claws were anatomically possible, and was going to say, “Duh! Of course they are! There they are, see?” 😃 \*\* Heh, I just assumed it was going to be about [this](http://www.foto1.com/arcure/images/helmet.gif). Happy ---
**Author:** ![Sock\_Munkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Sock\_Munkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sock_Munkey)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2003, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-wolverines-claw-anatomically-possible/186669/20 "2003-07-07T07:02:32Z")
I think the claws would have to be pushed out by lymphatic fluid squeezed out of small sacs wrapped in muscle and have sort of a nub at the base of the claw that fits into a corresponding indentation in his hand bones thus locking his claws in the extended position. Upon releasing the pressure the claw nub slips out of the dent and and are sucked back into his forearms as the sac re-expands. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-wolverines-claw-anatomically-possible/186669.md?page=2)